Officers from the MAGEN anti-smuggling unit of the Israel Police seized 20
kilograms of heroin in an arrest raid near the Jordan border in the Arava desert
region late Tuesday night.
With rain pouring down, officers charged a car
and arrested two suspects, moments before they were to set the car alight,
according to the Southern District police. Inside the car police found the
drugs, which they estimated could have a final street value of around NIS 4
million.
The MAGEN unit’s initials stand for “Intelligence, Borders,
Negev” in Hebrew. The unit was founded in 2008 to to fight narcotics and weapons
smuggling across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders.
he Negev District
police said Wednesday that the construction of the Egypt border fence has not
eliminated smuggling; instead, it has merely changed the methods used by the
gangs operating in Sinai.